The Earthrace biodiesel boat made headlines last year during an around-the-world trip using biodiesel - it wasn't an easy journey. The ship's future could also be fraught with difficulty. The Earthrace website says the boat is for sale with an asking price of $1.5 million but we hear reports that the boat may soon find another life as part of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society fleet hunting down whale hunting ships in Antarctica. In fact, it's the Sea Shepherd group that might purchase the bo

Following a biodiesel flood during the Atlantic crossing, the Earthrace biodiesel-powered boat continued on its second attempt to circumnavigate using nothing but the biofuel as power. The troubled ship is still having its share of problems (like losing an engine near the Marshall Islands - PDF), but, as Domestic Fuel puts it, is still limping towards the world record. It won't be easy.

At the end of April, the biodiesel-powered Earthrace boat left Spain on its second attempt to set a record for round-the-world sailing using biofuel. The Atlantic crossing did present a few difficulties, with a toilet backing up, a small pool of biodiesel flooding the sleeping quarters and high waves making for slow going. Still, the boat should now be in Puerto Rico, according to the New Zealand Herald and had traveled 6651 km as of noon Monday. It's speed heading into San Juan was 43 km/hour a

If at first you don't succeed, why not try again with a bit of your own fat in the engine? The biodiesel-powered Earthrace boat is ready to set off on its second around-the-world attempt today, according to Motor Boats Monthly. The badass trimaran departs from Spain's Sagunto at 1 pm today (local time) and will try to circle the globe in record time. The current record is 75 days and was set by the British boat Cable & Wireless in 1998, Stuff.co.nz reports.

The first Earthrace attempt ended in defeat back in April. The idea was to circle the globe on a biodiesel-powered boat, but there were just too many problems (and one deadly accident). But, the idea - and boat - are just too cool to be sent into history without a second chance, so the New Zealand team will try again in 2008, trying to beat the circumnavigation record of 74 days, 20 hours and 58 minutes. And, with a little special help from the captain, the second time just might be the charm.

You have to give it to the Earthrace crew for keeping the faith as long as they have, and with all of the problems that they have encountered along the way, including the possible breakage of their boat and a deadly accident involving a fishing boat. Just a few days ago, we updated you that they had revised their trip plan in one final last ditch attempt to break the record of circumnavigating the globe using their biodiesel-powered boat. But, it seems that reality has recently struck, and they

A judge has ruled that the deadly ocean collision between the bio-diesel-powered Earthrace speedboat and a small fishing boat off the coast of Guatemala was an accident. The ruling clears the way for the Earthrace and its crew of four to be released and continue its attempt to break the world record for circumnavigating the globe. Lawyers for the boat's crew have reached a civil settlement with the families of the fishermen. The boat was expected to head for Acapulco. The team was held up in the

The biodiesel-powered Earthrace superboat will not set a round-the-world record. Last Sunday while traveling near the coast of Guatemala at night, the radical 78-foot Earthrace boat collided with a small fiberglass fishing boat. The Earthrace boat was basically unscathed except for prop damage but the fishing boat was demolished. The Earthrace crew managed to pull two injured fisherman out of the water but couldn't find a third. The Earthrace boat limped into a Guatemalan port where officials ha

The biodiesel-powered, environmentally friendly Earthrace speedboat is limping into its first port. The boat took off on a world-record attempt to circumnavigate the globe on March 10. But 16 hours later, according to the team's website, the crew nearly had to give up the attempt.

A while back, we showed you a catamaran that crossed the Atlantic using solar power. They also planned a return trip back across the Atlantic to New York. That was the first time a vehicle made the voyage powered by something other than fossil-fuels since boats were human and wind-powered. Now, we are updating you on a team attempting what they refer to as an "Earthrace." The team is circumnavigating the globe in a powerboat using only renewable fuels. They also plan to beat the current 75-day r

The pages of AutoblogGreen generally focus on land based transportation, but we thought we should make you aware of an attempt to break the record for circumnavigating the globe in the Earthrace. Earthrace, a 78-foot boat, looks like a seagoing version of the Batmobile, and is able to cut under waves like a submarine. The twist with this record breaking attempt is the fuel the boat is being run on. The Earthrace is strictly run on biodiesel. The skipper, Pete Bethune, and his wife are strong sup

Legal

We get it. Ads are annoying. Ads are how we keep the garage doors open and the lights on here at Autoblog - and keep our stories free for you and for everyone. And free is good, right? If you'd be so kind as to whitelist our site, we promise to keep bringing you great content. Thanks for that. And thanks for reading Autoblog.

Here's how to disable adblocking on our site.

Click on the icon for your Adblocker in your browser. A drop down menu will appear.

Select the option to run ads for autoblog.com, by clicking either "turn off for this site", "don't run on pages on this domain", "whitelist this site" or similar. The exact text will differ depending on the actual application you have running.